Butter Custom Bakery gets baking this weekend

Things are getting a little sweeter on the east side of town. At 805 South 1st Avenue — a few doors down from Heyn's Ice Cream — Butter Custom Bakery is opening its doors.

“I started baking with my mom when I was little," said owner Kaitlyn Wright. "When my daughter was born I started making cakes and stuff for her birthday and that just kind of spiraled.”

Following a ribbon cutting and some festivities the morning of July 26, Butter Custom Bakery will celebrate its grand opening through the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., customers will have a chance to come in and try what the new bakery is bringing to town.

Cakes, cookies, Rice Krispy bars, cupcakes and the like will be available alongside breakfast pastries like donuts and muffins. As the business grows, Wright hopes to continue to expand the venue's offerings.

Prior to opening up Butter Custom, Wright was part owner of Hoard's Bakery (now Sugar Bottom Bakery) in Riverside. Hoard's, however, focused on commercial baking, creating large quantities of goodies all at once. Wright decided she was more interested in the intimacy of retail baking.

"I just wanted to get back into working with customers," Wright said. "I really like taking orders and seeing peoples reactions when they get their stuff.”

Right now it's just Wright taking orders, baking and running the space. She has her family in town helping her, but hopes to bring on at least five employees if demand increases.

The location has a center room as well which will she plans to rent out for parties and will use to host classes a few times a month. She's had experience trying to find a place to rent out for her own kids' birthday parties and know it often requires searching months in advance.

"The area really needs more," said Wright. “We’ll do cookie/cupcake decorating parties so the kids will come in and we’ll have the stuff baked for them to decorate.”

Isaac Hamlet covers arts, entertainment and culture at the Press-Citizen. Reach him at ihamlet@press-citizen.com or (319)-688-4247, follow him on Twitter @IsaacHamlet